A Maryland resident claimed an 1816 Vermont birth to Vermont-born parents, but no known record provides his specific birthplace or his parents' or siblings' names. Studying his ties to his neighbors and those associates who shared close geographic, vocational, political and religious proximity brings a Maryland man home to his Vermont family. Learn how the presenter analyzed, correlated, and assembled common and lesser-known records to build a persuasive case.

Join us, the Board for Certification of Genealogists and Catherine B. Wiest Desmarais, CG for the live webinar Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at 8pm Eastern U.S. Register today to reserve your virtual seat. Registration is free but space is limited to the first 1,000 people to join that day. When you join, if you receive a message that the webinar is full, you know we've reached the 1,000 limit, so we invite you to view the recording which should be published to the webinar archives within an hour or two of the event's conclusion.

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

Board-certified since 2011, Catherine is a full-time professional genealogist specializing in researching Vermont and Irish ancestors, as well as forensic cases for attorneys and U.S. Army military repatriation cases. From 2014 - 2017 she served as the Vice-President of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG). Catherine holds a Masters Degree in Education from the University of Vermont, and has taught at the Genealogical Institute of Pittsburgh, the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, and the Forensic Genealogy Institute. She can be reached through her website: www.stonehouseresearch.com.

Add it to your Google Calendar

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Every Friday we're pleased to offer Legacy Family Tree Webinar subscribers a new bonus webinar just for them! This Friday enjoy a four-part series on World War II by Michael Strauss, AG. If you're not a member, remember the webinar previews are always free.

Researching Your World War II Ancestors: Part 1 - The Road to War

Part I of our four part series on researching your World War II ancestors is an introduction to the genealogy records for the years immediately preceding the war. It is necessary to go back to the years of the Great Depression to research your ancestors during the war. This lecture includes resources from the New Deal programs including the Civilian Conservation Corps, National Youth Administration along with the Americans who served in the ranks of the Canadian and British military. Part I ends with details about the National Guard and the Selective Service Act of 1940 where the United States prepares for war.

Researching Your World War II Ancestors: Part 2 - Records of the Army

Part II of our four part series on researching your World War II ancestors covers and focuses on the abundance of records for the United States Army. Military records of the Army and Army Air Corps-later called the United States Air Force are available to genealogists. This research is not without challenges or rewards. By reconstructing lost or damaged records it makes it easier to put together the stories of their experiences during the war.

Researching Your World War II Ancestors: Part 3 - Records of the Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard

Part III of our four-part series on researching your World War II ancestors continues as we move from the records of the United States Army to the other military branches. These include the United States Navy, the United States Marine Corps, and the United States Coast Guard. In addition to the major branches of our armed forces we include how to research your ancestor who may have served in the United States Merchant Marines.

Researching Your World War II Ancestors: Part 4 - War on the Home Front & Post-War Years

The final Part four of our series on researching your World War II ancestors covers various records and resources from the home front. This series looks closely at women and their service on both the fighting front at back home centering on their many contributions to the winning of the war. After victory and the end of the war in 1945 records were again created in the post-war years that point back to the early days of the war; including documents detailing alien registrations and veteran claim files for those who faithfully served.

About the Presenter

Michael L. Strauss, AG is an Accredited Genealogist and forensic investigator, is a native of Pennsylvania and a resident of Utah. He holds a BA in History and is a United States Coast Guard veteran. He is a licensed Private Investigator and qualified expert witness in Surrogate Court and Circuit Court in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Virginia. Michael is an approved genealogist with the United States Army to locate DNA qualified persons MIA from Korea, Vietnam, and World War II. He is a national genealogical lecturer and instructor for military courses at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR), and Virtual Institute of Genealogical Research (VIGR). He was the film historian for the 2015 Academy Award nominated movie "Finding Vivian Maier".

Legacy Family Tree Webinars provides genealogy education where-you-are through live and recorded online webinars and videos. Learn from the best instructors in genealogy including Thomas MacEntee, Judy Russell, J. Mark Lowe, Lisa Louise Cooke, Megan Smolenyak, Tom Jones, and many more. Learn at your convenience. On-demand classes are available 24 hours a day! All you need is a computer or mobile device with an Internet connection.

Subscribe today and get access to this BONUS members-only webinar AND all of this:

All 673 classes in the library 903 hours of quality genealogy education)

Most of the time you will probably be editing people using the Individual's Information screen.

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However, there is another way you can edit people that is especially helpful in certain situations and that is by using the Name List (View > Name List).

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There are a couple of things I want to say about the Name List in general. A Search List works in the exact same way as the Name List does. Think of a Search List simply as a filtered Name List. There are three buttons and three fields at the top. The first button allows you to sort the list by RIN (Record Identification Number) and the field next to that button allows you to type in a RIN number and you will be taken right to that person. You can change this button/field to the User ID by going to Options > Show User ID# in the list. The Given button allows you to sort the list by given names and you can type a given name in the field to the right to navigate to a certain given name. The Surname button allows you to sort the list by surname and you can search by surname using the field to the right. You can search by full names in either field. In the Given name field you would type John Doe but in the surname field you would type Doe, John. In the given name field, if the person has a middle name you will have to type that too.

I want to talk about a couple of important options before we go over editing. If you look to the left of the # button at the top you will see a blue triangle icon. This will open the Source Clipboard. At the bottom left you will see five icons, AKAs, Media Gallery, To-Do List, Hashtags and Stories which you can use as quick shortcuts. If you click the Options button at the bottom you will see an option to add Married Names to the Name List. Married names will have a § symbol in front of the name. You can also add Alternate Names to the Name List. Alternate names will have a ~ symbol in front of the name. You can see these symbols in this screenshot.

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There are three other things you can add to the left panel of the Name List, Tags (all 9 or your choice of 3), Hint results, and Potential Problems. Also notice that if you have set your direct line those people will be in bold (Tools > Set Direct Line), and if you have set males, females, and unknowns to be different colors you will see that too.

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You will see many more options on the Options menu that you can explore on your own but I do want to point out that this is where you will find the Print option. The Print option is very important because you can tell Legacy exactly which fields you want to print making for a very customized report. You can also export the report to a CSV file (generic spreadsheet file format) which is very handy. We won't be going any further than that in this article.

Now to editing. Over on the right side you will see six tabs. The first tab is the Detail tab and this gives you a quick overview of the person. You can't do any editing on this tab. If you look at the top you can see in the Surname box that I typed in a partial name to get to my grandmother.

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The second tab, Edit, is where you can edit vital events, AKAs, all of the different ID numbers, privacy settings, and several more things. If you have set Legacy up so that fields that have sources have a different color you will see the colored labels on this screen exactly like you would if you were looking at the Individual's Information screen. I have my screen shrunk down so that I can do the screenshots. You will have more room than what you see here.

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The third tab, Events, is where you will enter and edit the person's events. You will be using the buttons at the bottom. You can see on the right of the events three columns of icons. If you have a shared event you will have an icon in the first column. If you have a source for that event you will have an icon in the second column. If you have media attached to an event you will see an icon in the third column.

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On the fourth tab, Notes, you will find the General Notes, Research Notes and Medical Notes. I have highlighted the Medical Notes because that is where you will find the cause of death field and some users overlook this.

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The fifth tab, Family, is where you will see the person's immediate family. You will see parents, siblings, spouse(s), and children. You can edit any of these people. Click the person you want to edit and you will see the buttons below change as well as the details of that person. You can't delete, link, or unlink from here. You will have to go back to the main menus to do that.

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The last tab is the Sources tab. It works just like the Assigned Sources screen that you are used to. You will be using the buttons at the bottom to add or edit. I want to point out two icons that have just now appeared on your screen that you might have missed. Remember where the Source Clipboard is? (to the left of the # button at the top left). Now you will see a new icon there just below it. This is the Paste button. If you have something loaded on the clipboard you can use this to paste it into into any of the fields on the right. Also, there is a Copy icon at the bottom right. If you highlight a source in the list you can copy it to the clipboard. We will be talking more about sources and the Source Clipboard in another article. For now just be aware of where these icons are.

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I told you that there would be times where editing from the Name/Search List would be the way to go. Let's say you need to do the same sort of edit to a group of people that you have put on a Search List. You can click the appropriate tab on the right and then quickly go down your search list making the edits. This will save you a lot of time and you can be assured your edits are uniform.

Legacy usually has more than one way to do something so that our users will find a routine that makes sense to them. Being able to edit an individual via the Individual's Information screen vs. the Name/Search List is one of these types of options.

For video tech tips check out the Legacy Quick Tips page. These short videos will make it easy for you to learn all sort of fun and interesting ways to look at your genealogy research.

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

The recording of today's webinar, "The Case of the Broken Link: Decoding the URL” by Cyndi Ingle is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.comfor free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

Web site addresses appear to be long, complicated, and mysterious. Navigating through the web leads you from link to link, web page to web page, site to site, and server to server all in a matter of a few clicks. How can you sort out separate web sites? How can you track down a new URL for a broken link or a broken bookmark? What happens when your source citation for a web site contains a URL that suddenly disappears? We will break down this technical topic to help you easily hunt down the URL you need.

View the Recording at FamilyTreeWebinars.com

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 33 minute recording of "The Case of the Broken Link: Decoding the URL” is now available to view in our webinar library for free for a limited time. Or watch it at your convenience with an annual or monthly webinar membership.

You would never know it by listening to its recording, but yesterday's live webinar was going along just fine, and then poof! It was gone.

In nearly 700 live webinars, this happened one other time. Back on March 13, 2013, we were enjoying learning from Judy Wight about Irish research when all of a sudden - poof! The webinar turned off, or crashed, or whatever you want to call it. We learned afterwards that about a minute before it disappeared, the new Pope was announced. Its announcement must have spiked internet traffic everywhere and killed the GoToWebinar servers. A couple of frantic minutes later, it was resolved, we continued the rest of the live webinar, and listening to the recording you would never know anything had happened.

Yesterday, the two presenters for the webinar connected about 30 minutes early, and we proceeded with our usual tests to ensure everything was working as expected. I've done enough of these now that I am rarely, or should I say, never nervous anymore about the tech behind a webinar. I still have to be alert, but if something happens, I usually know how to resolve it very quickly. Well, for some reason, and maybe I shouldn't have, I shared with the presenters about the experience with the "Pope webinar of 2013," and teasing them, I told them not to do anything that would cause the same result. We laughed a little, and made our final preparations.

About twenty minutes in, just when their DNA story began to cause its first few emotional tears (we were warned to have tissue nearby and they were right!), for the second time in webinar history - the webinar went poof! The dreaded "the webinar has ended" message appeared on my screen. My first thought was, "oh no - there's no restarting a live webinar after receiving that message." As fast as I could, I logged back in to my GoToWebinar admin account, surprisingly noticed that this webinar was still in the list (hurray for that!), and I quickly clicked the Start button. Slowly but surely, the first panelist was back online, then the second, then the hundreds of live webinar viewers started to return. Oh good, this was going to work out. I thanked everyone for their patience and the webinar proceeded as expected, and turned out to be one of my personal all-time favorites. But what happened?

Here's where I won't expose the entire truth. It wasn't one of the presenters, but one of us (ah hem...) on the admin side of things (it wasn't Marian either...) clicked the small X in the upper right of their control panel. Clicking the X is what one does to leave a live webinar. But when you're in the admin area of a live webinar, and you click the X, it means something different. As in, it will close the webinar for everyone. Oops.

It all worked out, and the live webinar resumed. Lots more emotional tears were shed as we viewed the DNA-related family reunions. But now we have months of good material to use to tease our colleague. He'll (oops, I just "accidentally" revealed his gender) probably have a phobia now of clicking the X button in any software.

If I hadn't written this article, this history would have been erased because the recording of the webinar turned out perfectly. Really - you'd never know anything went amiss.

After a live webinar concludes, I begin the work of encoding, importing, editing, marking, producing, and publishing the recorded version of the webinar. Below is a portion of what my video editing software looks like. You are seeing the timeline of the recording of a recent webinar. Notice there are two tracks. Track one is where the actual video resides. If you look carefully, you'll notice that I added a couple of zoom elements and one transition element in this track. Track two displays the waves of the audio. It looks like my voice was a little louder at the very beginning and at the very end - but those are both things that I can easily even out before publishing. The timeline for a normal webinar looks just like this one, nice and clean.

Now take a look at the timeline in my editor for yesterday's webinar. Tracks one and two look great. And then the twenty minute mark hit. While I was able to successfully restart the live webinar and all went well, the recording of the live webinar did not go as smoothly. What you see in tracks three, four and five are pieces of video, audio and graphics that I had to splice in from various pieces of technology that I use in the background.

What normally takes me about an hour to go from the end of a live webinar to what you see in the Webinar Library took about three hours yesterday. I was only able to do what I did because of many processes and technology that I have in place such as the use of dual internet service providers, a mifi card, an audio mixer system with digital voice recorder, the ability to split out the audio from a video file, and much more.

I write this not to boast of the technical expertise I've developed over the years (or to tease my colleague), but to give a little bit of the behind-the-scenes of what makes our webinar series run. There really is more than just pressing the "Record Webinar" button to make it all go smoothly.

The recording of today's webinar, "True Stories of Families Reunited Thanks to Genetic Genealogy” by MyHeritage's Rafi Mendelsohn and Roi Mandel is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.comfor free.

Webinar Description

Many long-lost relatives have been brought together lately thanks to the combination of DNA, family trees and historical records. In this inspiring webinar, MyHeritage's research team will present some of its favorite heartwarming reunions.

View the Recording at FamilyTreeWebinars.com

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 22 minute recording of "True Stories of Families Reunited Thanks to Genetic Genealogy” is now available to view in our webinar library for free. Or watch it at your convenience with an annual or monthly webinar membership.

Web site addresses appear to be long, complicated, and mysterious. Navigating through the web leads you from link to link, web page to web page, site to site, and server to server all in a matter of a few clicks. How can you sort out separate web sites? How can you track down a new URL for a broken link or a broken bookmark? What happens when your source citation for a web site contains a URL that suddenly disappears? We will break down this technical topic to help you easily hunt down the URL you need.

Join us and Cyndi Ingle for the live webinar Wednesday, March 14, 2018 at 8pm Eastern U.S. Register today to reserve your virtual seat. Registration is free but space is limited to the first 1,000 people to join that day. When you join, if you receive a message that the webinar is full, you know we've reached the 1,000 limit, so we invite you to view the recording which should be published to the webinar archives within an hour or two of the event's conclusion.

Download the syllabus

In preparation for the webinar, download the supplemental syllabus materials here.

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

Cyndi is the creator, owner and "webmaster" of the award-winning web site Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet, www.CyndisList.com, a categorized index to more than 335,000 online resources. In its first three years, Cyndi's List was three times voted the best genealogy site on the World Wide Web. It helps millions of visitors worldwide each month and has been featured in the media and diverse publications, including ABC News, NBC News, USA Today, Time, Newsweek, Parade Magazine, Wired, Family Tree Magazine, Family Chronicle, and Internet Genealogy magazines. Cyndi has been interviewed for many television and radio broadcasts including ABC News, NBC News, the BBC, and National Public Radio. She has also participated in the Ancestors II television series on PBS. Cyndi, a genealogist for more than 35 years, is a past-member of the board of directors for the National Genealogical Society. Cyndi is an internationally known guest lecturer for various genealogical society meetings and seminars (http://www.CyndisList.com/speaking-calendar/). She has lectured for the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, GENTECH, Brigham Young University, the Federation of Genealogical Societies, the National Genealogical Society, the Washington Library Association, the Florida Library Association, the American Library Association and numerous local genealogical societies in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Cyndi has authored numerous articles and three books. Before her life on the Internet, Cyndi worked as an international banker specializing in foreign exchange and computer networks. Cyndi, her son, Evan, and three Boston Terriers live in Edgewood, Washington.

Add it to your Google Calendar

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Tuesday's Tips provide brief how-to's to help you learn to use the Legacy Family Tree software with new tricks and techniques.

Set Direct Line (Beginner)

Setting your Direct Line is a navigational tool which will help you click through your file at lightening speed. Before you get started, go to Options > Customize > Data Format > Option 3.8. Here is how I have mine set up. You might have chosen different options but make sure that the box to Indicate direct-line children in lists (bold) is checked. Notice that this is a (gbl) option. This means it is global and if you have more than one file you only have to set this option once and it will affect all of your files.

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Step 2 is to actually set the direct lines. Go to Tools > Set Direct Line. Put yourself in the box using the Change button and then Set Preferred Line.

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Now when you navigate your direct line ancestor will be in bold in all list style dialog boxes.

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In the Name List you can see three of my direct line ancestors in bold, my great-grandfather, my 2nd great-grandfather and my 3rd great-grandfather. They are also colored blue because I have the Ancestor colors turned on and they are in my paternal grandfather's line.

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So how does this save you time? It is easy to see the bold names in the Family View and you can go click, click, click click to go up or down the direct line chain. You can also easily retrace your steps when working with your direct line. This is something I use all the time. If you want to capture both your direct line and your spouse's, simply set the direct line to one of your children.

For video tech tips check out the Legacy Quick Tips page. These short videos will make it easy for you to learn all sort of fun and interesting ways to look at your genealogy research.

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

Many long-lost relatives have been brought together lately thanks to the combination of DNA, family trees and historical records. In this inspiring webinar, MyHeritage's research team will present some of its favorite heartwarming reunions.

Join us and MyHeritage's Rafi Mendelsohn and Roi Mandel for the live webinar Tuesday, March 13, 2018 at 2pm Eastern U.S. Register today to reserve your virtual seat. Registration is free but space is limited to the first 1,000 people to join that day. When you join, if you receive a message that the webinar is full, you know we've reached the 1,000 limit, so we invite you to view the recording which should be published to the webinar archives within an hour or two of the event's conclusion.

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

Add it to your Google Calendar

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

The recording of today's webinar, "Secrets in the Attic: Break Down Brick Walls With Home Sources” by Denise May Levenick is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.comfor free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

Solve genealogical mysteries with clues in family sources. Photos and examples show where to find hidden details about your ancestors' lives in the things they left behind, including old documents and letters, and unidentified photographs.

View the Recording at FamilyTreeWebinars.com

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 22 minute recording of "Secrets in the Attic: Break Down Brick Walls With Home Sources” is now available to view in our webinar library for free for a limited time. Or watch it at your convenience with an annual or monthly webinar membership.

Every Friday we're pleased to offer Legacy Family Tree Webinar subscribers a new bonus webinar just for them! This Friday enjoy "It's All In There - Navigating the FamilySearch Catalog" by Sharon Monson. If you're not a member, remember the webinar previews are always free.

It's All In There - Navigating the FamilySearch Catalog

Locating available books, microfilms, microfiche or maps for a certain place or subject depends on the depth of the catalog search criteria. The eight basic searches for Place, Surnames, Titles, Author, Subjects, Keywords and Call Number or Film/Fiche Number are demonstrated. Many microfilms have been digitized and thousands of books are available online. Filter the searches to save time and effort with tips on how to use the FamilySearch Catalog.

About the Presenter

Sharon D. Monson is a professional genealogist, creator of the Genealogy Kit, and author of Shortcut to Genealogy Sources. She is a frequent presenter at local, state and national conferences. Her extensive research experience in courthouses, repositories and the Family History Library spans 35+ years. Her blog at https://gensearchandmore.com features primary and secondary U. S. genealogical sources and skill-building research tips.

Legacy Family Tree Webinars provides genealogy education where-you-are through live and recorded online webinars and videos. Learn from the best instructors in genealogy including Thomas MacEntee, Judy Russell, J. Mark Lowe, Lisa Louise Cooke, Megan Smolenyak, Tom Jones, and many more. Learn at your convenience. On-demand classes are available 24 hours a day! All you need is a computer or mobile device with an Internet connection.

Subscribe today and get access to this BONUS members-only webinar AND all of this:

All 666 classes in the library 894 hours of quality genealogy education)

The Legacy Charting program is included when you purchase Legacy. A limited version is also included with the free Standard Version of Legacy. It is both a standalone program and one that you can access from within Legacy itself. I mention this because if you open Legacy Charting from outside of Legacy the initial screens will look different than when you open it from within Legacy. Why? Because if you open it as a standalone programyou will be asked which file you want to use for your chart. If you open it from within Legacy it will assume you want to use the file you have open.

Let's start with what you will see when you open Legacy Charting as a standalone program.

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After you click Create a New Chart you will see this.

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I doubt you will have as many usable files as I do but you can see that there are several different file formats that Legacy Charting can use, not just Legacy files. Once you select the file you want to use you will see this.

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We will stop there and go on to what you will see if you open Legacy Charting from within Legacy itself. You can get to Legacy Charting from either the Reports Toolbar or the MyToolbar. Your MyToolbar will look a little different than mine because mine has been customized.

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When you open the program you will see the same screen as where we left off when using Legacy Charting as a standalone program so we will continue on from here.

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You will create your chart first and then change the options. Select one of the charts and Legacy will create it using whatever settings you last used. If this is the first time you have created that particular chart it will create it with the defaults. We will use the Standard Ancestor Chart as an example (the very first chart).

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The chart pops up using the last options that selected. We won't be able to go over every possible option but we will hit the highlights. Over on the left you will see a vertical stack of icons. You will also see a horizontal line of icons at the very top. If you hover your mouse over each icon you will get a popup telling you what that icon does. You can also click the Legacy Charting icon in the extreme upper left corner to bring up another menu.

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On the Home tab you can start a new chart, change the anchor person for the chart, change the number of generations, show or not show duplicate lines, and you can set your privacy options.

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The Appearance tab is where you will find most of your options for jazzing up your chart. Legacy Charting has some built in themes that will give you a head start. You can also change your colors. The Box Items is where you will tell Legacy what exactly you want to be displayed in your boxes. I will expand on that a little further down because there is something I don't want you to miss there. You can change your page, box and line border styles and thicknesses, you can change your box sizes and the distances between boxes and generations. You can add a background. There are some default backgrounds that you can choose from but you can also add your own. You can customize the title of your chart.

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The Insert tab lets you add text boxes and images to the white space in your chart to add extra information and interest.

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The Export tab is where you can print your chart, export it to several different file formats, email your chart to someone, or you can order a chart to be professionally printed.

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The Help & Options tab is where you will set your general options, access the help file, see the version of Legacy Charting you are using, technical support links, and you can change your chart to several different supported languages.

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The Tips & Updates tab shows your installed version (the program will automatically be updated when you update Legacy), a link to our main website, and a list of helpful articles. You will see a summary of the article at the bottom of the screen but if you double click the article itself you will be taken to the full article.

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I want to go back to the Box Items option on the Appearances tab because some users have trouble with this. Here is what you will see.

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You can move the available items from the left box to the middle. Even if they are in the middle they won't be included in your chart unless they are checked. Also, you need to highlight each item in the middle box and you will see options pop up over on the right for you to consider. You can change the font at the bottom for each item as well.

There are two more hints I want to give you. There is a xDNA chart but it isn't a chart per se. It is a color scheme and some users don't find this right away. Select a Half Fan Chart and then go to Appearance > Color. Select DNA X Chromosome from the drop down list. You can change the colors for the xDNA inherited from males vs. females.

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The last thing I want to talk about is the difference between SAVING a chart and EXPORTING a chart. When you save a chart it is saved in a .lwcx format. You will be asked if you want to save the chart when you exit. You can also save a chart by using the Save icon in the top row of icons on the screen or you can click the blue Legacy Charting icon in the extreme upper left corner which brings up a menu that includes saving. If you save your chart in the .lwcx format, you can open that chart again and edit it. If you have made changes in the main Legacy file you can click the Refresh icon (bottom icon in the vertical stack of icons on the left) and it will automatically update your chart. If you have exported your chart as a PDF, BMP, JPEG, PNG or TIFF file you will not be able to edit these. This is what you do when you are ready to send a file to someone.

Legacy Charting has many different charts to choose from and many options within each chart so that you can design something that you will be proud to display on your wall or send to your family members.

For video tech tips check out the Legacy Quick Tips page. These short videos will make it easy for you to learn all sort of fun and interesting ways to look at your genealogy research.

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

Henrietta** was the sister of one of my direct ancestors. I wanted to gather her basic information and hopefully write a short bio on her. What I found was a complete dead-end.

In 1870 and 1880 Henrietta was living with her parents and siblings. I found her 1882 marriage to Douglas Crandall so I expected to find Douglas and Henrietta as a married couple in the 1900 census. Instead I found Douglas listed as a widower and living with his parents. Not good.

By 1910 Douglas is living with his second wife Ella. The census records clearly show that Henrietta was dead, right? Douglas is buried in the family cemetery but there was no marker for Henrietta nor is she in any of the other local cemeteries. Unfortunately, her death was before this state mandated death certificates. Her bio was a bit sparse but at least I knew who her parents were and who she married. I also knew she had three children with husband Douglas because two sons were listed on the 1900 census with their widowed father and a daughter, who had died at age 4 months, was found in the family cemetery.

The breakthrough was an email from one of Henrietta’s direct descendants. She had seen some of my Holder memorials on Find-A-Grave and guessed I was tied to Henrietta’s line somehow. She asked if I happened to have a photograph of Henrietta. I told her I didn’t but I sent her two photos of Henrietta’s brother. The return email was a shocker. Henrietta didn’t die until 1931, at least 31 years later than I had thought. Henrietta had been declared "insane" in 1899 and was sent to the state hospital where she remained until her death. This was totally unexpected and it again showed me not to assume anything. This descendant sent me copies of the court documents (ex parte order and service*) as well as Henrietta’s complete medical file from the state hospital. It was an absolute goldmine of information.

*An ex parte order, in this context, is an order for involuntary commitment. It is any temporary order issued at the request of one person when the other party is not there. You will also see these as restraining orders and temporary custody orders. The service is when the sheriff serves the order on the person named, again, in this context it was when the sheriff took custody of Henrietta and delivered her to the state hospital.

Henrietta is buried in the state hospital cemetery in an unmarked grave. I was now able to order her death certificate. I went back to the county clerk and requested Douglas and Henrietta's divorce decree, clean copies of the ex parte order and service, and Douglas and second wife Ella's marriage record. I had so much more information about Henrietta and was able to write a nice bio. I still have a lot of unanswered questions but you never know, another unexpected email might hold the answers.

**All names have been changed at the request of Henrietta's grandchildren

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

Solve genealogical mysteries with clues in family sources. Photos and examples show where to find hidden details about your ancestors' lives in the things they left behind, including old documents and letters, and unidentified photographs.

Join us and Denise May Levenick for the live webinar Friday, March 9, 2018 at 2pm Eastern U.S. Register today to reserve your virtual seat. Registration is free but space is limited to the first 1,000 people to join that day. When you join, if you receive a message that the webinar is full, you know we've reached the 1,000 limit, so we invite you to view the recording which should be published to the webinar archives within an hour or two of the event's conclusion.

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About the presenter

In every family, someone ends up with "the stuff." Denise May Levenick is a writer, researcher, and speaker with a passion for preserving and sharing family treasures of all kinds. She is the creator of the award-winning family history blog, The Family Curator and author of two books on preserving family treasures, How to Archive Family Photos (Family Tree Books, 2015), and How to Archive Family Keepsakes: Learn How to Preserve Family Photos, Memorabilia and Genealogy Records, (Family Tree Books, 2012). Denise inherited her first family archive from her grandmother & a trunk filled with photos, letters, documents, and lots of "miscellaneous stuff" and is now the caretaker of several family collections. She has adapted professional archival techniques to the family archive situation and shares her experiences at her website, and in her books and articles. Denise is a frequent contributor to family history magazines and online publications, and presenter for webinars and workshops. She is a former high school English and Journalism teacher, and a holds a Master's Degree in English Literature. How to Archive Family Keepsakes helps family historians use professional archival techniques with their own family treasures. Numerous charts and checklists and Denise's practical guidance offer step-by-step advice for organizing, preserving, and digitizing heirlooms, and genealogy research. Denise is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the Southern California Genealogical Society, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and The Phi Beta Kappa Society. She heads the grant committee for the Suzanne Winsor Freeman Memorial Student Genealogy Grant founded in 2010 to assist young genealogists seeking to advance their genealogical education. She lives in Pasadena, California.

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The recording of today's webinar, "Overcoming Brick Walls Caused by Record Loss” by Mary Hill, AG is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.comfor free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

Many records have been lost due to climate, poor storage, and war. Often it is possible to find alternative records if you know where to look. Federal records such as the census, and cemetery records both local and national are just two of the many record types to check to find ancestors who lived in areas where records were destroyed or lost.

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If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 31 minute recording of "Overcoming Brick Walls Caused by Record Loss” is now available to view in our webinar library for free for a limited time. Or watch it at your convenience with an annual or monthly webinar membership.